SAGINAW, MI — A small team of public health officials fan out
in Saginaw and Bay counties each week to visit area restaurants, bars
and coffee shops.

They aren’t there to eat.

Instead, they
show up unannounced to check up on the cleanliness of the businesses,
schools and churches serving food and drinks to the public.

When
they find a freezer that isn’t cold enough or a lack of soap in a
dishwasher, it goes into a citation report that requires the eatery to
take action.

Mold, ants and improperly marked food are a few of
the violations health inspectors have turned up this year. Other
restaurants have breezed through their inspection with flying colors.

For
the first time, health departments in Bay and Saginaw counties are
giving the public a look behind the scenes by putting food-inspection
reports into an online database.

Curious diners can now quickly
check up on their favorite restaurants, as well as hospitals and school
cafeterias, dating back to Jan. 1, 2012. Also included are churches, concession stands, soup kitchens, and any other licensed food establishment that serves food or drink to the public.

Misti Frank, an
environmental health specialist at the Saginaw County Department of
Public Health, says the online reports can help consumers to make
informed decisions about where to eat.

“I really do think that if
you’re going to be going out to eat somewhere, you should have the
ability to look at the report and see whether or not that’s a place that
you want to take your business,” Frank said.

The health
departments monitor more than 1,000 licensed “food service establishments,”
including everything from vending machines to full-service restaurants.

MLive,
The Saginaw News and The Bay City Times combed through some of the most
recent inspection reports to get a snapshot of how clean area food
businesses are operating.

Here are some of those findings:

No food code violations were found in about one-sixth of Saginaw County’s 691 licensed food service establishmentsand in more than one-third of Bay County’s 407 establishments during the most recent routine inspections as of March and April.

Of
the remaining group, the Saginaw County health department found 2,422
violations and Bay County’s Health Department recorded 634 violations.

Food code violations included everything from not having paper
towels available for employees at the hand sink, to the presence of mice
or insects, to improper date marking on food.

The worst-performing restaurants tallied 20 or more violations of the food code.

Officials
at each health department emphasize that inspection reports are only a
snapshot of one day and inspection results can vary widely from one
report to the next. In general, establishments are routinely inspected
about every six months.

“Inspection is just one point in time
and, really, you need to take the whole view of maybe a year or so,”
said Joel Strasz, health director at the Bay County Health Department.

In
August, MLive checked the databases a second time. About half of the
Saginaw restaurants and two-thirds of the establishments
in Bay County had had another routine inspection in the time that passed. Some
establishments fared better, some fared worse, and some had the same
number of violations the second time around.

MLive
created a database for the two counties that simplifies matching a
restaurant to its inspection report results, providing a snapshot of inspection results as of August. The accompanying database allows searching by county, or by food service establishment name, or both.

Those
violations included, a vegetable dicer, knives and can opener stored
soiled, no sanitizer detected in the dish machine, a bag of cooked soup
stored on the counter top at 75 degrees for an unknown period of time,
an open gallon of milk and meats improperly dated or not date marked, a
box with a moldy tomato, an employee observed wiping off gloved hands on
their apron, mold growth on the walls in the dish machine area, and
heavily soiled floors.

Bryant Wilke, director of
environmental health services at the Saginaw County Department of Public
Health, said 20 or more violations is a lot for a single establishment.

“If
you’re getting a couple, and they’re easily corrected right there with
the person doing the inspection with them, OK, that’s understandable,”
Wilke said. “You’re getting up, eight, nine, 10, 12 … we’re not getting
good control here, and that’s when you step back and say, ‘Hey listen,
you need to make some serious changes here.’”

View full sizeIHOP is located at 2255 Tittabawasseee Road, in Saginaw Township. Heather Jordan | MLive.com

That's what happened in IHOP's case, according to Craig Hoffman, a spokesman for the restaurant.

“Anything less
than meeting — and exceeding — standards is unacceptable to us and not
what we expect for our guests. We used this opportunity to take
immediate action to correct any issues to ensure we are operating at the
highest level of excellence,” Hoffman said in a prepared statement.

In January, a re-inspection and informal hearing with the health department followed IHOP’s voluntary closure
and the restaurant was approved to reopen, according to health
department records. Also, health department officials arranged for a
food service consultant to oversee the facility for a period of time.

Health department officials said restaurants rarely are shut down, although the agency does have that enforcement power.

“It's
extremely rare. I've done it once here, I think, once or twice,” Strasz
said. “The more typical reason why a restaurant closes, and it's
usually voluntary, is something wrong with the ... water or power
supply.”

The IHOP isn’t the only Saginaw County establishment to rack
up 20 or more code violations in one inspection, recent data shows.
Others on the list included Perry’s Schuch Hotel on Hamilton in Saginaw,
with 24 violations; the now-closed Damon's in Saginaw Township, 28
violations; Bell’s Evergreen Inc. in Hemlock, 21 violations; Genji
Japanese Steakhouse in Saginaw Township, 25 violations; now-closed La Placita on
South Michigan Avenue in Saginaw, 20 violations; and Saginaw Township’s
McBrite Manor, 27 violations.

The violations ranged from ants in
the waitress area and raw chicken being stored above raw pork at McBrite Manor, to insufficient hot water at the hand-washing sink and raw meat stored next to ready-to-eat chicken at Genji, to mold growth in the ice
machine and absence of sanitizer in the dish washing machine at Perry's
Schuch Hotel.

Most of those establishments had more recent routine inspections that found far fewer violations.

On
July 10, IHOP had a routine inspection that found four violations. On
June 7, Perry's Schuch Hotel had a routine inspection that found seven
violations. On April 29, Bell's Evergreen Inc. had a routine inspection
that found five violations. On April 23, Genji had a routine inspection
that found 12 violations. And on April 10, McBrite had a routine
inspection that found two violations.

Genji official explains violations

View full sizeGenji Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar is located at 3870 Bay Road, in Saginaw Township. File | MLive.com

Genji Japanese Steakhouse, on Bay Road in Saginaw Township, had 25
violations when it was inspected Oct. 25. That routine inspection found raw vegetables being stored in a
beverage cooler, an employee's Ramen noodles in
the kitchen, heavily soiled grease
extractors above a grill, insufficient hot water at hand-washing sinks,
several dented cans in the storage area, and raw beef and raw chicken
stored next to cooked, ready-to-eat food, among other things.

Two
follow-up inspections were conducted. The restaurant's April 23 routine
inspection found 12 violations and resulted in one follow-up inspection.

Violations
found during the April routine inspection included presence of drain
flies in the bar area, absence of soap at hand-washing sink, dish machine lacking hot enough water, and soiled soda-gun holders, among
other things.

A manager at Genji declined to comment on the
restaurant's inspection reports and referred questions to Mary Anne
Tessin, environmental manager for Pi’s Property Management, which owns
Genji and other restaurants.

“We try to train our staff members so
that we don’t have any type of violations, of course,” Tessin said. “We
strive to make sure that daily, every day, that these things are done.”

“I’ve personally been in the business 30 years and I pride myself on
the cleanliness of our restaurants. Our restaurants are very clean,” she said.

Tessin said some health inspectors are much more thorough than others, so a
restaurant can rack up more violations depending on who is doing the
work. Also, it’s important to consider what types of violations were found, as they
vary in degrees of seriousness, she said.

She feels putting inspection reports online is both good and bad, since the general public doesn’t have the knowledge and background to put what they read in inspection reports into context.

“In one way, I think it’s a good thing because I think restaurants are held accountable for what they’re doing,” she said. “But we already have that in place. We hold ourselves accountable to a high standard.”

Tessin said, as a diner, an inspection report with 25 violations, as Genji had in October, wouldn’t deter her from eating there.

McBrite Manor's Oct. 22 routine inspection found 27 violations — 10 of which were priority foundation and priority violations, the more severe types of violations. They included moldy tomatoes in a walk-in cooler; open, undated milk and cottage cheese containers; raw chicken stored above raw pork; a dented can of strawberry glaze sitting on a shelf; and ants in the waitress area, among other things.

One follow-up inspection was conducted. The next routine inspection in April found only two minor violations.

Todd Seibt, chief support officer for Lutheran Homes of Michigan, Inc., which owns McBrite Manor, said they take the care of their residents seriously.

“If we have a violation, or if we get flagged for something, we move immediately to correct it,” Seibt said.

Mike Perry, manager at Perry's Schuch Hotel, said a lot of their violations had to do with water lines and the age of the building.

“They made a couple of new rules and regulations on water lines and our water lines have been here for more than 100 years,” Perry said. “We had to
move them an inch or two.”

The Nov. 30 inspection also found broken glass and mold growth in and under the counter beer coolers at the bar, a heavily soiled floor and mop sink, cooked chili stored at 46 degrees, mold growth in the ice machine and no sanitizer detected in the
dish machine.

After that inspection, health department officials said Perry's Schuch Hotel could only operate as a bar and not serve menu items until the issues were resolved, and Perry said that occurred five days later.

In Bay County, a check of the inspection database in April showed The American Kitchen restaurant was tops with 11 violations, most of which were corrected on the spot, according to the Dec. 19, 2012, inspection report. The restaurant opened for its
first day of business on Dec. 1, 2012.

A second inspection of the restaurant on July 10 found three violations. The owner of American Kitchen could not be reached for comment and a manager declined to comment.

Understanding inspection reports

Does a lot of violations in a report mean a restaurant isn’t fit to operate? Not necessarily.

Violations are items that, if not corrected, can lead to foodborne illness, food contamination or an environmental health hazard. The health department rates violations based on how serious they are considered.

The least-serious are known as core violations. They include:

Clean equipment, utensils or linens exposed to dust, splash or other contaminants

Dirty floors

Mops left to dry in a mop sink, rather than hung on rack to dry properly

No lid on a Dumpster

View full sizeThis information can help you better understand the reports and the terminology used.

More serious violations are termed priority foundation violations. They include:

No sanitizer test strips available for a dishwashing machine that uses chlorine

No towels available at a hand sink

The most-serious violations are called priority violations. They include:

Not washing hands or wearing gloves when handling ready-to-eat food

Food temperature violations

Containers of sanitizer stored on the same shelf as clean dishes

Poisonous/toxic materials not separated from food

The health department characterizes its inspection work this way:

A good routine inspection would have:

No priority or priority foundation violations

No repeat violations

Few core violations

A typical routine inspection report may have:

A few priority or priority foundation violations

No repeat priority or priority foundation violations

A small number of core violations

A poor routine inspection report generally has:

Several priority or priority foundation violations

Repeat priority, priority foundation or core violations

Numerous core violations

Restaurant Association supports online reports

The Lansing-based Michigan Restaurant Association supports the transparency
of having food inspection reports online, but emphasized the importance of educating the public.

“We certainly want to make sure the agencies putting that information online are educating the general public about what they’re reading … because there could be some
information that could be inappropriately harmful to a member," said Adriane De Ceuninck, vice president of marketing and communications for the association.

The association, founded in 1921, represents nearly 4,500 Michigan food service establishments.

There are 83 counties in Michigan but only 45 health departments because some
of the more rural counties share health departments, said Angela Minicuci, public information officer for the Michigan Department of Community Health. It is unclear how many of them have food inspection reports online because the Michigan Department of Community Health doesn’t keep track of it.

“We don’t require them to report where they post that information,” Minicuci said.

Meghan Swain, executive director of the Michigan Association for Local Public
Health, in late-May surveyed the state’s health departments asking whether they post those reports online. Swain received 34 responses: 18 from departments that do have online reports and 16 from those that do not.Midland County is expected to begin posting food inspection reports online in 2014.

Restaurant owners and managers in Saginaw and Bay counties generally had positive things to say about having their inspection reports published online.

Tyler Wejrowski, kitchen manager at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar in Kochville Township, said he has nothing to hide.

“I think it’s actually a good thing because then people can actually see what’s going on behind the closed doors … we have nothing to hide anyways,” Wejrowski said. “We have three daily checklists that we go through to make sure everything here is labeled, initialed and rotated.”

View full sizeRick Revette cooks a patron's lunch at his restaurant, Gatsby's Saloon, located at 203 Center Ave., in downtown Bay City, on Monday, February 23, 2009. File | MLive.com

Rick Revette, owner of Mulligan’s Pub and Gatsby’s Steakhouse & Saloon in Bay City, said he appreciates the transparency both as a restaurant owner and as a diner.

“I personally think it’s a great idea. I enjoy going out to eat a lot so I want to make sure the places I’m going to are safe and adhering to the policies,” Revette said. “I take my
sanitation very seriously. It’s serious business, people can get extremely ill — you’ve even read about people dying. … The only person it’s going to bother is someone who’s running a dirty kitchen.”

Eric Malmo, owner of the Dockside restaurant on Water Street in downtown Bay City, said having the inspection reports online is a double-edged sword.

“It serves a purpose for the public to be aware of any situations that occur within a restaurant,” said Malmo. He said, however, the public needs to keep inspection reports in perspective.

“You can be on top of things, but during the hustle and bustle of things, during lunch, somebody … sets a bottle of sanitizer down on the counter back there where it shouldn’t be and that’s when (the health inspectors) come in. You’re branded then,” he said.

— Heather Jordan covers business for MLive/The Saginaw News/Bay City Times. She can be reached at 989-450-2652 or hjordan@mlive.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.